Well, here in Perth, Western Australia, the February/March weather has been really hot hot hot. In fact a record has been broken for the longest period of temperatures greater than 30deg Celsius for a few weeks. Not only humans are suffering but the poor bats are finding it tough too. A small colony of gould’s wattled bats decided it was time to find something cooler so they chose the “Coffee Stop” boxes. Normally, they only stay in these abodes for a overnight stop then move on. But this time they’re staying for a longer period. Due to the open design it has great air flow beneath the entrance. They seem to love it. Roll on the cooler weather…..I bet the bats are thinking that too…
Who's hiding there????
External view of the "Coffee Stop" box.
GoBatty 
Hi Joe,
Your blog is brilliant. Can I please ask; I want to make a bat box but i’m a little bit confused – is the bottom completely open? ie which way do the bats enter? from the top or bottom? One of the pictures you have shows a bat with droppings and a small stain of urine at the bottom-does that mean the bottom is closed? Obviously the coffestop box is open but in regards to the other bat box how do the droppings fall out? Or am i upside down when looking at the picture etc? Otherwise everything else on the DIY bat box page is self-explanatory. PS i’m the guy who rang you ages ago, mentioning i live in Craigie, close to Craigie Bushland/Pinnaroo. Anyway, any help you could give me with clarifying my misunderstanding of the DIY bat box would be great. Long live Gondwana…
Hi Andy,
Great to hear from you again. Love your email. You should be a prolific writer…fantastic….
Okay, the grey bat box in the bottom photo under (DIY bat box) page is my current design.
The sloping bottom is for the guano to fall down and out. In my past experience I find it builds up and they don’t like it. It breeds little mites. The bats are always cleaning themselves. Anyhow, they swoop from below the box and land on the mesh. Then climb up through the small gap and into the box.They tend to go up and hang off the walls and roof.
The first photo in the (DIY Bat box) page is an old design. In this photo the roof is open so you can see in from the top. Notice the floor is flat and not sloping. Also I have a white cloth jammed in the entrance to stop the bat from flying away. When I open the roof they all move down to the entrance and try to dash away. They think a predator is trying to eat them.
Hope this helps you.
cheers
Joe.
Hi Joe,
I watched your rocket house video and it sounds like a good idea to have the sand as a temperature stabiliser, so with your bat box, why not add in another board behind the front board, with a 30mm gap filled with sand.
Cheers,
Alan
Thanks for the idea Alan, It would be worth a try. I have some temperature loggers that I could use to record what temps a “Sand front Board’ type vers a normal one would be like.
Your comments are much appreciated .
cheers,
Joe.